Lizard's Rant

“I never saw anyone like Ty Cobb. No one even close to him. He was the greatest all time ballplayer. That guy was superhuman, amazing.”
- Casey Stengel

One of my favorite topics to read about is the dead ball era. For years I had been meaning to read Cobb: A Biography by Al Stump. Aside from widely being regarded as the best baseball biography ever written, there’s an interesting back story: Stump was Cobb’s ghostwriter for his autobiography in the 60’s and got to know him well. That autobiography was obviously wildly biased by Cobb, and just before Stump died in the early 90’s he decided to “set the record straight”. Well the book was fantastic, but ever since I picked it up weird Cobb related things have been happening. I mean, it’s been 80 years since the guy played - he’s not exactly in the news but for some reason the last few weeks I’ve seen Tyrus every where I look.

First, Chipper made a fantastic custom of the famous picture of Cobb sliding into third and “spiking” (classic Cobb) Jimmy Austin of the St. Louis Browns - probably the most reproduced baseball picture ever:

And a few days later I received an inquiry from a Price Guide user about the value of a 1911 Cobb card with Hughie Jennings that has the famous image on it:

And finally McFarlane unveiled Cooperstown Collection 5 with a Cobb figure!

What’s next!?!???

Side note: Cobb, in my opinion is the best player to ever play. Funny how we idealize Babe Ruth. For the first Hall of Fame class in 1939, the Baseball Writers Association of America gave Cobb 222/226 votes, while Ruth only received 215 (tied with Honus Wagner). Seems those who saw them both play undeniably thought that the Georgia Peach was better. Sure Cobb had his fair share of problems and run-ins with the law (and was a known racist), but Ruth also was suspended for fighting and other behavioral problems and was certainly no saint…which seems to be lost upon todays fans who just think of him as a fat jolly guy who hit home runs. To date, the Ty Cobb Educational Foundation has awarded 7,454 scholarships totaling $11,133,123. Cobb was never able to attend college, and in his early playing years decided he was going to help talented underprivileged southerners attend school.

Want to know a record that will never EVER be broken? Ty Cobb’s 35 steals of home plate!